Hunger Games Finale
by Liddypopz
Summary: When Katniss allies with Peeta in the Hunger Games


**This was for a school project so I couldn't have the endings exactly the same. I don't like Peeta that much and believe that Katniss should end up with Gale. I know this ending is stupid and people are not going to like it, so pleas don't be too mean on the reviews. Also I changed the names of other more minor contestants so you should be able to know who I am referring to if you are a big Hunger Game's fan. :D**

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I could see it in his piercing blue eyes that what I did was unforgivable.

Today at the feast I have to get the backpack of the things we need desperately from the Cornucopia and make it back alive. Peeta is not going to make it out of the arena otherwise. I couldn't help the face that I had to trick him into eating an overdose of sleep syrup. He would never have let me risk my life for his and I could not go on knowing that I did not try to save him.

Every year, two tributes, a boy and a girl was drawn out of a bowl of names, were sent from each of the twelve districts to fight to death in the arena for entertainment called the Hunger Games. I, Katniss Everdeen, came to replace my little sister Primrose. And Peeta is here out of luck. We represent District 12. This year, there is a slight change in the rules, we can have two victors. Which is why I teamed up with Peeta.

I camouflaged to the best of my abilities and left to the Cornucopia. I knew that I couldn't wait a moment longer because if one tribute from this year's Hunger Games retrieves theirs before me, they can easily grab mine as well. I darted towards the table that held my backpack. I sensed danger before a knife whizzed right past me. I spun around to find Caroline, a strong and well-trained tribute for District 2 preparing to launch a second knife at me. I poised my arrow to her heart and fired. She turned at the last millisecond to avoid a fatal hit. Instead of her heart, it hit her left arm. Too bad she wasn't left handed. But it slowed her down, for she had to remove the arrow and wince at the wound.

I grabbed the backpack as a knife hit me in the forehead. Blood filled my eyes and mouth. I was blinded. I felt Caroline slam into me. _This is the end. _I thought. I just wish that Peeta's dad would fulfill his promise to me on the day of the draw to fill my sister Primrose's tummy.

Caroline opened her jacket to reveal a huge selection of knives. She chose the cruelest looking blade and traced the outline of my face. I worked up a mouthful of blood and saliva and spat at her face. She shrieked and fumed. Just then, she was dangling a foot off the ground and imprisoned by Travis, a tribute from District 11. He brought a stone the size of a loaf of bread to Caroline's temple. There was no hope for her, her skull was dented. A cannon fired and a picture of her face was projected into the sky.

I slowly stood up. Travis hesitated. He overheard my brief conversation with Caroline and asked me about Rue, the girl tribute from his district and was my ally.

"We teamed up and tried to ruin the others' supplies. But District 1 got to Rue before I did. I tried to save her, but she couldn't be saved. I killed her murderer and buried her with flowers. I sang until she went to sleep."

Conflicting emotions flitted across his face. He pointed at me, "Just this once. And after this, no more owed. You understand?"

I nodded and ran. I didn't dare to stop until I got to the stream, I just plunged down. I took off my socks and held it firmly on my wound. They were soaked in mere seconds. Before losing consciousness, I scrambled to the cave. I took the injector for infections and stabbed it into a sleeping Peeta's arm. I blacked-out.

I dreamed of home, and that sense of security vanished the moment I opened my eyes. Peeta was beside me looking concerned and klutzy. He muttered something to me along the lines of "Glad to see your eyes open". I was puzzled as all the horrible memories at the Cornucopia rushed back and exploded in my head. I let loose a blood curdling scream and nearly sent Peeta in hysterics of his own. He soothed me for such a long time before I managed to stammer out what happened at the Cornucopia.

"So there are only six tributes left including us. Cato, Travis, Farrah, aka Foxface, evil Natasha, and us!" Peeta exclaimed.

Cato was strong and huge. He was trained his whole life to compete in the Hunger Games. He is from District 2 along with Caroline, whom Travis killed at the Cornucopia. Travis is also strong and huge and he is from District 11. Farrah is very sneaky and has her ways. She is very nimble and quick at making plans and calculations. She is from District 5. Natasha is an extremely evil girl from District 6, she tries to get alleys and kill them in their sleep.

Peeta's improvement over his condition was palpable. I was really glad that he was starting to stronger. Now, he sometimes comes hunting with me. Since his family was wealthy, he was very clumsy in the woods. I swear he tries to crack every branch he sees and then tripping on them. I finally gave up and just told him to gather some berries and herbs.

When I came back from hunting, I saw Peeta plopping a berry in his mouth from the pile in his hands and our food pouch. I can imagine my father whispering the name of in into my ear: "Nightlock".

"NOOOO!" I wailed as I sprinted towards Peeta. But it was too late. He swallowed the whole berry and had a confused look on his face. During the moment of panic, I shoved a thin branch down his throat trying to get that stuff out. I must have missed and blocked him windpipe or something because he stopped breathing and his lips turned purple. I immediately jerked it back out and I think it scraped something along the way because I heard a muffled gagging sound and blood spurting from his mouth and blood was dripping from the branch. Right now, Peeta is slowly losing consciousness and I am frantic to get him back to consciousness and splashing with him water from the stream. I was too preoccupied with the fact that he will soon be gone because of me and leaving me in this terrible arena alone to face the terrible fate laid right in front of me, that I didn't realize that he was staring at me with his clear blue eyes and was trying to say something despite the fact that I was suffocating him. I stopped drowning him with water and listened to the works spoken so softly that it was just a mere whisper: "Katniss, I know what Nightlock is, and I didn't eat one. I collected them in our food pouch to trick other tributes into stealing from our food supply and poisoning themselves."

Right on cue, the cannon fired and a hovercraft appeared no more than fifty feet away from us and lifted a green corpse of Farrah into the air.

"See?" He told me.

"Peeta…" I gasped.

"Katniss, don't beat yourself up. From the day of the draw, I knew you were a survivor and a fighter. You have a great chance of getting out from here alive. And your chances have doubled after the announcement of having two victors this year. Me, on the other hand, I barely have any chance of getting out here alive and you know it. Don't even bother denying it Katniss. Being allies with you increased my chances of survival by some, but I am dragging you down."

"Peeta…" I didn't know what to say.

"Katniss, I know I would die, it just didn't hit me that I could have lived for so long. Thank you Katniss." He said softly.

"I am killing you and before long it is going to change to 'I killed you'. Peeta I am so sorry. And you know I will never forgive myself." I sobbed.

"Katniss, Katniss, Katniss." Peeta whispered softly and gently closed his eyes. A cannon fired.

His lips were parted into a gentle smile. I kissed him on the cheek and murmured good-bye and scrambled towards the cave. The wind shifted as it said farewell. I made the mistake of glancing at his picture projected in the sky. It brought on an unstoppable streak of tears.

When I returned to the cave, I was instantly aware that someone, or some_thing _was in there with me, watching me. I immediately drew my bow and arrow and poised to fire. A singsong voice called out my name. I thought I was on too much shock and was hallucinating, but my suspicions ended when little Rue hurled herself into my arms squealing.

I dropped my bow and hugged her. It brought a fresh new stream of tears to my eyes. I buried my face into her soft silky hair.

"Katniss, oh, Katniss. Why did you abandon me?" Rue whispered. "I thought you decided against me, I wasn't going to come but I had to see you, at least once more before… before…"

"Rue, honey, I would never have abandoned you. Donald from District one killed you. I sang you to sleep and covered you with beautiful wildflowers, you were an angel." I replied.

"Oh, I would have loved to wake up covered in flowers and looking like an angel, but someone could have killed me in my sleep. I was lucky that Natasha found me and carried me into a cave and took care of me until I am all better. Right Natasha?"

"Hey, Katniss." A cold voice greeted me with such hatred that made me shudder. Natasha stepped out from the darkness and I experience myself the iciness of her cold beauty.

"Hey." I greeted her with the same tone.

"Well, why don't you let me take the first watch and you can get some sleep. Go on, cuddle up with that _littlie._" Natasha offered.

I narrowed my eyes at her and shrugged. I laid out my sleeping bag and snuggled in with Rue. I whispered to her: "Rue, you don't know how it hurt to watch you die knowing I can do nothing to prevent it."

"Katniss, _you_ don't know how much it hurt to know the only friend you have ever made in your life has turned against you and abandoned you." Rue replied.

"Katniss, you know Natasha, how she…" Rue began uncertainly. For the first time I noticed the black circles around her soft brown eyes.

"Yes, I know, I was worried that you didn't though, that you fell for her cruel beauty. Go to sleep now honey, I'll keep watch."

"Thanks." Rue was asleep before she closed her eyes.

I stroked her soft hair and watched her sleep. Her expression was tender and completely at peace.

I let my mind wonder, trying not to think about the upsetting thing today. I still haven't gotten over my joy to see Rue again. I guess that when she "died", I was too upset to notice that a cannon did not fire and her picture was not projected on to the sky.

An hour had passed, Rue was snoring softly, and Natasha was sitting at the edge of the cave. Natasha spun around so swiftly that she was a whirling blur. She darted quietly at our direction with a knife in hand. I peered at her between my eyelids.

I grasped my bow with my right hand, and gently squeezed Rue's hand with the other. Rue returned my squeeze to let me know that she is awake and fully understand the situation.

I could not have waited a second longer. I aimed at her neck and released my arrow. She let loose a painful shriek and fell on her knees. Rue jumped up from the sleeping bag and positioned herself for a fight.

"Katniss, why?" Natasha whispered.

"Don't you play innocent with me, we know your dirty little trick." I managed with gritted teeth.

"Natasha, why now, why not the nights we spent together when I was defenseless?" Rue gave a puzzled frown.

"Rue, grow up, will you? I can kill you anytime I want if we are together. Katniss is the one I want killed, she is one tough opponent I don't need. Look at me right now, no one ever beat me at my game. You see what Katniss can do? Heck, the best reaction I ever got was a frantic kiss from a boy who is wayyy over the top with himself." Natasha had the talent of sounding so bratty even when she only has minutes left, if not seconds.

Rue went pale.

I felt sorry for Natasha, for I just realized that she has never known a mother's love. I felt sorry for the boys who she tampered with their delicate feelings.

Natasha coughed up some blood and her eyeball flipped up, only showing the white part. A cannon fired.

"Rue, are you okay?" I wrapped my arms around her frail structure.

"I knew Natasha's trick when she helped me. I never had a peaceful night's sleep since I met her. But Katniss, I had to, there was no way I could have survived by myself." Rue looked at me with her soft brown eyes.

"Shh, it's okay, go to sleep now honey." I soothed.

Rue was asleep before her head hit the impromptu pillow I made from herbs.

I took in her childlike features. She reminded me of Prim. She was way to young to be experiencing this type of drama. I just wanted to protect her like how I protected Prim. Better yet, to get her out of this alive.

Twelve hours later, a cannon fired. I rushed out to see his projection in the sky. It was Travis. That means there was only Cato and us left.

I decided that now that I am out, I should get some breakfast. So I went hunting. When I passed the stream, I took in the fact that it was drained. I knew the Gamemakers wanted to drive us together and the meeting place was the lake.

I shot two birds and a few handfuls of peppermint leaves.

When I returned to the cave I saw Rue holding two eggs.

"Surprise! Breakfast!" Rue slammed into me when I entered the cave.

I blinked twice, took a deep breath and worked up the nerves to say: "That was Travis."

Rue's smile disappeared in a flash. Tears pooled in her eyes. I dropped everything I had in my arms and held them out. Rue entered them with no hesitation and wailed.

I gently stroked her hair.

I said: "He really cared about you, you know. He let me go once because we were allies."

Rue looked up into my eyes and calmed immediately. Her face was set with determination.

As by an unspoken agreement, we packed everything we need into the backpack. We made an unusually fancy breakfast and didn't care that Cato could track us down by the smoke.

We were full for the first time since we have entered the arena.

Nobody talked on our way to the lake.

When we approached the lake we settled into the top branch of a tree, the only tree.

As Rue and I waited by the river for Cato's presence, the mockingjays sang Rue's sweet and tender song. It flowed smoothly along and I was sucked into its brilliant harmony. Suddenly, the mockingjays stopped their beautiful song and burst into high-pitched shrieks. Immediately Rue and I poised to attack as Cato dashed into view. I shot one of my dwindling supplies of arrows but it bounced off harmlessly off Cato and I screamed in frustration as I realized that he had some kind of special body armor. I braced myself for a much more difficult and painful fight than imaginable. But as Cato approached us, he made no attempt to stop or attack. That was when I noticed that Cato, apparently, has been running for a long time from something. And that something was an army of muttations.

Muttations are not natural-born animals. They are wolf or giant dog like creatures that can balance easily on their hind legs and wave their front paws as if they have wrists. They appear to have eerie human-like qualities. Their hair is curly and the colours vary from each mutt. They have four-inch claws and razor-sharp.

Rue and I take all this information in as Cato climbs up our tree and lies there regaining his strength and going through a terrible cramp. Suddenly, Rue was jerked away from her place beside me. We both screamed. I thought the mutts have gotten to Rue and I was about to try to kill them all, but it was only Cato, and he was choking her. How small and delicate she looked compared to the menacing Cato, she was small for her twelve years. I couldn't help but compare her to my sister and how similar they were.

I aimed her arrow at Cato's head but I figured that Cato would pull Rue with him when I shoot him down to the mutts. I also knew I had to act quickly because Rue was turning blue. Rue made a last effort of drawing an "X" on Cato's head with her own blood. At Cato's moment of hesitation, I released my arrow.

Cato was momentarily surprised when I attacked. I saw my chance, my only chance to save Rue, as he fell, I managed to get a firm grip on Rue and held her in place. Cato fell. I could not bear to watch. But we heard Cato making a last effort to kill some muttations.

It was nighttime and Rue had a severe head injury that Cato made and is bleeding the life out of her. I fastened her jacket around the wound and secured it with the last of my arrows.

As morning approaches, Cato was very near and by the sounds of his moaning, he was begging to be killed. Rue nudged me: "Don't worry about me, use that arrow and make it count. It will be fast, and we will be outta here in no time."

I hesitated.

Rue nudged me again: "Go on Katniss."

I yanked out the arrow and shot.

Cato moaned and the cannon fired.

This means that we are the victors of the 74th Hunger Games. And somehow it doesn't make me, or Rue very happy with our victory.

A hovercraft appeared and dropped two ladders for Rue and I to climb aboard.

The next few hours were a blur. I remembered showering, for the first time in weeks. Eating, only vegetables and fruits because they didn't want it all to come back up at the Victors' Parade tonight.

The Victors' Parade is a parade of all the victors, which are still alive, of past Hunger Games. Rue and I, this year's victors, will be the grand finale.

I was going to be dressed in an outfit that suggests your District's principal industry. Being in District Twelve, I am probably going to be dressed like coal miner. I will be dressed in baggy miner's jumpsuits and headlamp hats.

"I think that the coal miner outfit is very typical and overdone, so I want to dress you in an outfit that nobody would ever forget you." Cinna interrupted my thoughts.

Cinna is my stylist and friend. He is my favourite person I have met outside of my district. I couldn't believe how happy I was to see him again. He wore no make up and dressed casually in a slim T-shirt and jeans.

"So what do you have in mind?" I wondered out loud.

"What do we do with coal? We burn it, right?" Cinna chuckled. "You are not afraid of fire, are you?"

I stared at him with a bland expression on my face.

After adding some highlights of my feathers with the least amount of make-up, as Cinna insisted, I was dressed in a simple black unitard with a gigantic collar behind my neck that covers me from neck to my mid-thighs. It added some curves that the hunger has stolen from me. On my heart was pinned the golden mockingjay pin, the offspring of a blabberjay and mocking bird. My friend Madge gave it to me to remember our District in the arena.

I had shiny leather boots that go up to my knees. It was fashionable yet amazingly sturdy. I could feel the support it gave my ankles. I had a glossy black cape that flutters around with the softest movements of air. It reflects all types light, turning them into a soft glow of red, orange, and yellow.

"Katniss, I started making this attire the day you entered the arena, I knew in my heart that you would make it out of there alive. This looks perfect on you." Cinna remarked.

I stared at him.

"Even better, you add this to your wardrobe when you go home…" Cinna said.

"_Home"_ I thought.

"… I have many; many made to match this style…"Cinna continued.

"Many, many" I gasped.

"You see, they are very special, your unitard is both bullet and water proof. It has a heater and air conditioner. Your cape is capable of windbreaking" Cinna chuckled at his own little joke. "Your boots are waterproof and I am sure you can already feel the extra support it can give you. Better yet, the boots can automatically take you where you want to go. All you have to do is think where you are heading."

I felt my jaw hit the ground.

Cinna grinned: "Come on, we have to get you ready for the Victors' Parade. Don't move, I am going to light your collar."

I couldn't wait to see Rue's outfit.

As if reading my thoughts, Cinna urged: "Come on let's go meet Rue and go out the door to join the parade."

We arrived in the lobby to find the Victors of the Hungers Games in their chariots. Our chariot was a sunset over the wheat field as if the whole field was burning.

Rue wore this golden dress that represents the wheat of their agriculture-producing district. It flutters with every step she took.

"Now, let's have you two hold hands." Cinna directed.

I squeezed her hand.

"Make your grand entrance when the previous Victor from last year goes out. Remember, heads high, big smiles. They already love you." Cinna soothed.

"Katniss, you look amazing." Rue whispered.

"You too, honey." I whispered back. "Cinna is amazing"

Last year's victor went out the door.

"Heads high, big smiles." Cinna waved at us.

Trumpets started, the door opened, we slowly came out on to the crowed street. The lights were dazzling and I was awestruck. I felt my heart pounding at my throat. I caught sight of us on the big screen. I was not pretty. I was not beautiful. I was as radiant as the sun. The adrenalin boiled up inside me. I waved at the crowed.

People were screaming my name. One single rose landed in my hand. I gave it a delicate sniff. I blew a kiss at the general direction of the sender. Hundreds of hands went up to catch my kiss as if it was a real tangible thing.

I blew more kisses at the crowd, in every direction. Everyone went wild, all wanting to catch my kisses. I felt my grin get bigger, which I didn't think was possible.

I hugged Rue close to my chest and kissed her on the forehead, Rue closed her eyes and clutched me tight. I could feel millions of camera clicking around me. I was blinded by the flashes, but it didn't matter, because I will always be remembered as:

_**Katniss, The Girl on Fire**_

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**_**Mwahaha I feel so evil. As I said I had to alter the ending of this story. I like Peeta enough that I don't want him killed, yes I know, the way he got killed was seriously stupid. Just don't take this seriously and just laugh along with the stupidity of this. :]**


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